THE SHIPPING OUTLOOK.
At a moment when investors are on the look-out for any securities .promising an increase in capital values, Shipping shares have commanded attention by reason of the rise in freights and the moderate increase in international trade. Lord Craigmyle, as Chairman of the P. and 0. Company, how- ever, has, not for the first time, given some pause to the move- ment by sounding a note of warning. The cccasion was the launching of a vessel at Leith, and in the course of a brief speech, Lord Craigmyle referred to certain aspects of the Shipping industry which have to be borne in mind when considering the more favourable points. The increased cost of ship-building is of course a matter of concern to those companies who are constantly being called upon to modernise their fleets, and Lord Craigmyle declared that some of these companies have had to curtail their programmes of building and in many instances to stop their building programmes altogether, until costs become more moderate and "show a better chance of those who operate ships being able to make both ends meet." Lord Craigmyle then touched upon some other handicaps suffered by shipping companies, such as foreign subsidised competition. At the same time the Chair- man of the P. and 0. Compaiti also recognised some favourable points, including the prospect of a continuance for some period of better trade conditions, while he added : "There is (Continued on page 444.)
FINANCE
(Continued from page 442.)
also a stirring in the minds of the public and in the minds of the Governments of Empire of a recognition of the supreme importance to Britain and to all the Dominions of a strong mercantile marine and a sense of public obligation not to let that essential factor of imperial prestige and power be whittled down and destroyed piecemeal by uneconomic foreign com- petition."
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